Archangel Gabrielle/Gabriel

Archangel Gabrielle is extremely powerful. She is a fearless kick butt angel, more like an Archangel Michael or Ariel than a Raphael. Her particular specialties lie with communication. She is very helpful in giving us the strength to speak truthfully about how we feel and what we believe. Anyone who has a job that involves leadership and communication can call upon her for help, or anyone who feels they have trouble speaking openly and honestly about what they feel could also benefit from her help.

There's no mistaking that Gabrielle has a distinctly feminine energy, yet many know her as Gabriel. In a time when the Catholic Church favored the patriarchy, they didn't seem to like idea of powerful beings being of feminine energy. In some ways, though, it really doesn't matter, because an angel (and all of us really) have an existence beyond sex or gender identification. But for what it's worth, when I communicate with her, she looks like a female and seems to identify with female strength--think Xena Warrior Princess.

This is same Gabrielle who appeared to Mary to tell her that she would give birth to a son she would name Jesus. This makes perfect sense to me, since this is a message to give Mary strength in her purpose. From my days as a little girl at Catholic school, I imagined this nice angel being loving and kind to Mary, talking gently; but now that I've had my own interactions with Gabrielle, I really don't think it went that way at all! I imagine it was more like being summoned by a great, powerful voice to gather strength, courage, and resolve, because a monumental task is going to be bestowed upon Mary. I imagine it to be much more like a call to arms than a gentle talk with a friend.

Now here's an angel with a story of strength. In fact, Gabrielle means, "God is my strength." I have been using this as my mantra lately. When we take on our problems as if we are alone in fixing them, we've forgotten God in the equation. Our problems don't have to be our burdens alone, and when God is our strength, we are never defeated.